Building Stress Resilience With Focused Relaxation

Stress! It is all you hear about these days. You can buy books, attend workshops or listen to audios, all designed to help you “reduce your stress.” That is a little odd if you think about it.

For starters, what actually is stress; can you touch it, see it, or move it? No, it is not something physically tangible. Stress is defined as: mental, emotional, or physical strain caused by anxiety or overwork.

So if stress is not a tangible thing, then how is it able to cause so much havoc? It has to do with your reaction to the stress producing catalyst or stressor. The frequent choice is to start stressing, which is ruminating on the thoughts of what will happen or what has happened. It is generally not about what is happening at the current moment.

Like a hamster on a wheel, your mind rolls thoughts over and over. It can be mentally exhausting. This lack mindfulness, or awareness of the present, leads people away from peace and harmony and into the poor habit of stressing.

Chronic stressing serves no good purpose. It raises blood pressure, heart rate, and respiration, the result of which can increase heart clogging cholesterol and plaque formation. It also releases a chemical and hormonal reaction in the body. Over time this can lead to, or exacerbate, many common health problems.

This propensity for stressing combined with poor diet, lack of engaging physical activity and the epidemic of obesity, equals a dangerous health situation. People are not so much dying, as they are slowly killing themselves through poor lifestyle choices. It is called preventable illness.

In recent years we have seen a rise in autoimmune disorders. There seems to be a correlation between prolonged stressing and this spike in reported cases. When the stress hormones circulate relentlessly, the body becomes venerable to illness and to breakdown.

Stress hormones like cortisol and adrenaline were intended for specific fight or flight situations. If attacked by a bear you would have the sharp reflexes to react quickly, which is a good thing. The problem comes when you routinely react this way to the thoughts you are thinking.

Because the body was not designed to withstand such over-stimulation, it results in a population of run-down and mentally fatigued people.

Notice I said mentally fatigued. That is because although people may feel physically depleted, the fatigue has not come from an overabundance of physical activity, it is from being overwhelmed by constant mental stimulation.

Chronic fatigue and fibromyalgia both have their roots in mental over-stimulation, causing physical manifestations. When the body “shorts-out” mentally, you can also see signs physically. While there are numerous factors that contribute to these disorders, prolonged chronic stressing is usually present in all suffers.

To develop stress resiliency one must understand what is happening when you feel anxiety and stressors pushing your buttons. Recognize the patterns and begin inserting focused relaxation to offset the negative hormonal cocktail you have released through stressing.

Focused relaxation, such as deep breathing, yoga, stretching, meditation, prayer, tai chi and guided imagery can all be used to elicit a healing relaxation response to neutralize the harmful stress response.

Learning and practicing these techniques can help you to restore your mental and physical balance. The more you engage in relaxation response techniques, the faster you will be able to access to that neural pathway again. The mind creates a true path, each time you visit a memory the path becomes deeper and easier to access.

Each memory in your brain has an emotion tied to it. This cellular fingerprint and corresponding emotion are accessed each time to revisit that memory. This works in the negative with things like PTSD or Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. In that case the emotion attached to the memory is traumatic and frightening.

Each time you revisit the memory you strengthen the pathway and bring forth the emotion that is tied to it. In the relaxation model, you are bringing forth a healing and restorative memory that releases positive endorphins and feelings of well-being. Using this focused relaxation model you can heal and restore what stress has tried to destroy.

Stress has been listed as one of the major causative factors for preventable disease. It is known to set in to motion an unhealthy chain of events within the body, causing damage to health. Just as damage can be derived from stress related illness, studies now show that the body can be healed through using techniques that calm the mind and body by evoking the relaxation response.

This response can be elicited through any of the practices listed under the “focused relaxation” umbrella such as yoga, tai chi, guided imagery, visualization, progressive muscle relaxation and meditation, just to scratch the surface. These techniques are being used to manage all kinds of pain, infertility, insomnia, and numerous health conditions.

Dr. Herbert Benson, who heads the Behavioral Medicine Section at New England Deaconess Hospital in Boston and who also teaches at Harvard Medical School, describes the phenomenon:

“What we have found is that when you evoke the relaxation response, the very genes that are turned on or off by stress are turned the other way. The mind can actively turn on and turn off genes. The mind is not separated from the body.”

New studies are showing that relaxation techniques can actually improve health by changing the patterns of gene activity which affect how the body responds to stress.

The positive effects were seen in the genetic analysis of both long-term and short-term users of such techniques. They showed changes in their cellular metabolism, response to oxidative stress and other processes. All of which may contribute to cellular damage from chronic stress.

While these positive outcomes from relaxation techniques were once thought to be “all in the head” of the user, scientists are now starting to find more definitive proof that these techniques, that elicit a relaxation response, have a biofeedback mechanism that alters gene expression. This is the first research of its kind, showing the systemic changes produced through focused relaxation techniques.

The work of Dr. Herbert Benson has been ground breaking in the study of the effects of focused relaxation. He is considered the leading authority on the matter.

Dr. Benson’s work is part of a new scientific field of study called psychoneuroimmunology or PNI. It draws from psychology, immunology, neurology and other fields to investigate the interaction
of mind and body.

In his book, The Relaxation Response, Dr. Benson discusses the actions of the “fight or flight” response and how, when repeatedly accessed, it can cause harm to the body. He notes, “Our studies revealed the opposite was also true. The body is also imbued with what I termed the Relaxation Response – an inducible physiological state of quietude.” He goes on to discuss how the body is able to “heal and rejuvenate itself” through this process. In explanation he states, “Regular elicitation of the Relaxation Response can prevent and compensate for, the damage incurred by frequent nervous reactions that pulse through our hearts and bodies.”

His research concludes that not only is this process good for health, but it can help to restore it.

In society today, where busyness and multitasking is the norm, it becomes even more important to understand the physical and mental toll that a fast paced lifestyle has on one’s health and well-being.

By understanding and taking measures to counteract the negative effects of stress, you can enhance and potentially prolong your life.

Focused relaxation is a tool that is easy to implement and one to consider as a way to improve personal wellness. Brilliant in its simplicity, many professionals are reluctant to consider it as a viable alternative for traditional treatment methods. However, as more research emerges, it is plausible that acceptance and use of focused relaxation will dramatically rise.

At the very least, regularly evoking the relaxation response allows users to find increased balance and peace. The healing effects that it yields are not just temporary boosts; they can substantially impact your systemic health, making it more resilient to future stressful encounters.

The techniques described in this article can forge a deep pathway that makes becoming calm and relaxed a more natural part of your behavior. By practicing them regularly you will build up your tolerance to stressors and begin to create youthful resiliency. While you cannot control the stressors in life, through focused relaxation, you can begin to control your innate reaction to them.

Lisa M. Schilling RN, CPT
www.getrealwellnesssolutions.com

Lisa Schilling is a Registered Nurse, wellness speaker, author/writer & recovering pageant queen, who spreads hope with her Get REAL approach to wellness. She guides & inspires people to create a wellness plan, that aligns them with a deeper purpose, allowing them to live their BEST life, see their TRUE beauty & embrace their REAL value.